Reddit reviews Listening to Music

For an update on that course by the same professor (Craig Wright), check out the Coursera page for it: https://www.coursera.org/learn/introclassicalmusic Still free (unless you want to take tests/quizzes and get a (of questionable use) certificate). In my opinion, it's 90% the same content as the OpenCourseWare videos, but more closely focused on the online student experience; e.g. better use of video, graphics, links.

As you'll hear from both the OpenCourseWare and Coursera's courses, Professor Wright recommends the textbooks to supplement the lectures. As a student of this course myself, I definitely agree. The textbook goes into much greater depth and is easier to reference than a video. The lectures are good summaries and affirm what you've read, but I find that I'm really learning from the textbook.

I don't think you need to buy the latest edition though. Professor Wright has been teaching this course for years and has many different books with different titles and numerous editions. I bought Listening to Music, 7th edition by the professor, used for $17. It's a couple years old. But the content is still applicable to the Coursera course. I was also lucky to have it come with the audio CD to use with the audio exercises (one of the best aspects of the book in my opinion), which can be a crapshoot with the secondary textbook market.

Good luck!

You might be interested to know about Craig Wright he teaches music and he has a course at Yale on listening to music very much like what you teach :)